La Caminata del Migrante: a social movement

Abstract

The literature on the October 2018 caravan from Central America to the US has offered different interpretations of the phenomenon. Some studies look at it as a strategy for mobility, others as an exodus, and others as a collective action. I synthesise these perspectives to advance the conceptualisation of the caravan to account for its main features. To do so, I perform a case study of the caravan based on a literature review and a secondary qualitative analysis. Drawing on the concept of Social Movements, this article first proposes the conceptualisation of the caravan as a social movement—understanding the different features of the caravan as axes of a social movement. Then, the article introduces the concept of ‘transnational social movements on the move’ to account for the innovations in the space and repertoires of contention and diffusion. The case study shows that the 2018 Caravan is a transnational social movement on the move composed of purposive migrants from different nationalities moving collectively across countries to challenge a system of authority at the local and international level using innovative repertoires of contention.